Ferreiras are a basketball family
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT SPORTS EDITOR
Jordan Ferreira admits he was a little nervous before last Wednesday's scheduled game against Cape Cod Academy.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent Jordan Ferreira (left) with his mother, Dawna, and brother Michael.

The Nantucket High School senior was poised to score his thousandth point for the Whalers, and not only would his parents be at the game, but kids throughout the school had been making signs and talking about the pending achievement all day.

"It was hard falling asleep last night," he said Wednesday afternoon. "I was getting phone calls. Today, during school, as the hours went by I got kind of nervous. I think I was more nervous because we were playing at home."

But the game wasn't played. The high winds that were forecast prompted Cape Cod Academy to cancel, disappointing the students and fans who wanted to witness high school history. Ferreira would be just the sixth Nantucket player to reach the thousand point milestone; the first since Kari Harvey netted the magic number in 2004 and the first boy since Anthony Saunders in 1997.

His accomplishment would have to come on the road, then, as two away games were on the schedule before the next home game. He needed just 19 points, a quite doable figure to reach since his points per game average this year is 17.6. "I was going to try for it today," he said, noting that it meant just as much to him to reach the mark in front of his fellow students and fellow islanders. "It's nice how the whole community's involved," he said.

"He's a Nantucketer through and through," noted his mother, Dawna Frasca.

There was some consolation knowing his parents would be at both offisland games, as would his older brother, Michael. His father, Tom, and his brother didn't need to make any extra travel arrangements either - they knew they'd be going to the games with Jordan on the team bus anyway - they're both on the coaching staff.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Michael, in fact, came oh so close to being the first Ferreira to break the thousand-point barrier, scoring 950 points in his three years on the varsity. The 2004 NHS graduate says he's proud of his brother's accomplishments. "It's awesome. I think he's worked really hard. He's improved a lot since he was a freshman."

Tom also played on some notable Whalers teams before his graduation in 1973. "I played with Glen DaSilva (number three on the Nantucket all-time list with 1,297 points). When you look up there (at the banner hanging in the high school gym) it makes you proud to have been on that team."

They're a true basketball family. Growing up, Jordan watched Michael develop into a star player who averaged 21 points per game during his sophomore year and right around 20 his junior and senior years. "I traveled with the team for pretty much every game," Jordan says, gleaning what he could as his own skills developed at the Boys and Girls Club. "He's taught me a lot," he said of his older brother. "He was a team captain, too, and he's taught me about leadership. He's helped me with my ball handling."

There were also the backyard games between the two, sometimes hotly contested one-on-ones. "I never had to worry where my kids were because they were always outside playing basketball," Dawna recalled.

Beyond basketball, however, there are other lessons Michael has taught his family - lessons about perseverance.

Like Jordan, Michael made the varsity his freshman year, but he played only three games that year. He was out for pretty much the season because of illness, an illness that ended up requiring a kidney transplant. Fortunately, his mother was a match. Michael treated the ordeal as a bump in the road and went on to star in both basketball and baseball at NHS, excelling at what he'd worked so hard at growing up.

Lately, however, there are signs his body is rejecting his new kidney. "My numbers have been up," he said. "They're talking about putting a fistula in my arm," an access portal for dialysis. "It's not happening," he insists.

His father, Tom, is not a match for a kidney transplant, but he is exploring other options. He hopes to enter a program where he would donate a kidney to an eligible recipient if a donor for Michael can be found. "I may be a match for another family, and someone in that family may be a match for him," he explained.

Dawna is looking into another experimental treatment that would involve her donating her bone marrow. "It's new, but a bone marrow transplant may stop the rejection. It's so new, they still need more results."

Michael will travel to Mass. General Hospital next Wednesday for more blood work. He may find that his numbers have gone down, he says. He knows, too, that he may require another transplant and hopes a donor is found.

He's glad for the opportunity to help coach his brother, especially with the team vying for another shot at the post season. As for Jordan, his brother has set a standard, on the court and in life, that he is glad to emulate. "He's helped me out so much," he says.

Even though they have shared similar basketball experiences, their difference in age means they have never had the opportunity to play on the same team - until now, that is. After the high school basketball season ends, Jordan and Michael will finally get the chance to team up on the Nantucket AAU squad in early spring. Both are excited about the opportunity. "We've never gotten to play on the same team before," Jordan points out.

Although they did team up to take on their father and uncle in a little two-on-two action. Their uncle, by the way, is Willis Ferreira, the varsity girls' coach and also a former Whalers star player.

"They were sitting around and saying, 'You guys can't beat us in basketball,'" Jordan recalled. "I said, 'Let's go out and do it right now.'"

"We got dusted," his father admits. "It was pretty bad."

Like his father, uncle and brother before him, Jordan is making his own mark on the Whalers. He netted his thousandth point Friday at Blue Hills, his brother and father on the bench beside him, his mother in the stands. His achievements, however, are secondary to the camaraderie he's found with his teammates and the accomplishments they've made together. "Only one name goes up on the banner," Tom pointed out, "but it's really a team achievement. They should all be proud."

"It's very special," Jordan said. "But it never would have happened without my teammates."

Nor, he knows, without the support of his family. I

JORDAN HITS 1,000

Jordan Ferreira wasted no time in reaching the thousand-point mark at Blue Hills last Friday.

Needing 19 points to make the milestone, Ferreira scored 24 points as the Whalers rolled to a 74-57 victory. Play was stopped as the achievement was announced and Nantucket fans in attendance led the cheers.

Against South Shore Vo-Tech on Saturday, Ferreira scored 14 points in Nantucket's 69-55 win.

Delroy Lawrence was a factor in both victories, pumping in 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds against Blue Hills and adding 21 points and 10 rebounds against South Shore Vo-Tech.

The Whalers, now 8-5 on the season, play tomorrow at Sturgis Charter School.